


A Day in the Life of a Zookeper

by ghosttheconfusedhuman



Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-07
Updated: 2019-01-07
Packaged: 2019-10-05 23:54:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17334758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ghosttheconfusedhuman/pseuds/ghosttheconfusedhuman
Summary: Newt is the supervisor for the cheetah and carnivore department at a prestigious zoo. When a new intern, Credence, arrives it is up to him to show Credence how things work around the zoo.





	A Day in the Life of a Zookeper

**Author's Note:**

> This work is unbeta'd.

Newt unlocked the bottom gate with a little difficulty. The silly thing always got stuck and this morning was no exception. It wasn’t even 5:30 in the morning and it was already looking to be a long day. After pushing the gates open, Newt got back in his car and drove the rest of the way into the park. It was still dark and while Next hated the early shift, he still had to do them. Newt parked and walked down into the office. He still had about 15 minutes before the others on early would arrive. Looking at the schedule, he saw Credence and sighed. _Well, I guess I better go check the vehicles if it’s his first early shift. Or since he needs to learn anyways, we can just start a little later today. Percival should be here soon. ___

____

____

The office door open and Percival headed instead. Fortunately, it wasn’t that cold in the morning during the summer months. He saw Newt already sitting and reading the notes from the day before. “Anything we need to worry about?” 

“Tsavo and Enzi didn’t come in again. They are in Right Berm.” 

“It’s so weird that no one else can get them in. I have no problems bringing them up.” 

“Percival, you are their primary. You work with them the most and took the most part in their upbringing here. It makes sense to me,” Newt chuckled. “We also have that new intern today. This will be his first early shift.” 

“Ah. Want me to go check the vehicles?” 

“We should show him how to do it so he knows. The lucky kid has got us to show him the works this morning.” 

Percival smiled and started changing his shoes. He looked at the whiteboard and noticed the donation. “Want to take bets on if it’s on time or not?” 

“That would be a losing bet, they never are,” they both laughed. 

Newt spun around on his chair and checked his watch, 5:27. “Credence should be here soon.” 

Just as his sentence ended, a tall boy walked into the office. Both Newt and Percival turned to face the new arrival. 

“You must be Credence,” Newt said. 

“Yup, that’s me. Sorry I was running a little late.” 

“You’re right on time. Let’s go get started with the day.” 

The three men headed out into the zoology parking lot as the early rays of dawn crept over the hills. They walked in silence to where the carnivore department vehicles were parked along the fence. 

“The first thing interns do on an early shift is check the oil and coolant on the Kubotas. If either is low, let one of us know. Also, you need to start them so they are warmed up by the time we come out here.” Credence watched silently as Percival showed him how to check each of the fluids and how to start the Kubotas. “Cheetah Kubota is really sensitive, you have to hold the key in just the right spot. You’ll get the hang of it soon.” 

Newt and Percival also pulled the back seat of the second Kubota down. Newt sat in the driver’s seat while Percival took the passenger seat. Credence hopped in the backseat. The Kubota jumped to life as Newt turned the key. They pulled out of the zoology parking lot and headed towards lion huts. Percival unlocked the gate and opened it. Newt drove through and Percival closed it behind the Kubota. When they reached the gate at lion huts, Newt shut off the Kubota and all three men stepped out of the vehicle. 

“You will eventually be allowed to come down here and clean huts alone after lions have been kicked out. Right now, we are going to check if all the lions are inside. Our two adult males, Tsavo and Enzi, chose not to come in last night so we may not be able to walk the fence line in Right Berm Pen” Newt said as Percival unlocked the outer gate. They walked up to the building, and Credence started to look a little more excited about the morning ahead. 

“The first thing you do when walking about to any hut is to ensure that there are no animals in the hallway. We obviously never expect that to happen but just in case, always check the hallway before unlocking the hallway door.” 

Percival smiled at Credence while Newt talked and unlocked the hallway door. Credence got his first look at the inside of lion huts. A narrow hallway at the center had two yellow lines on either side. Immediately on his left, Credence saw a door with a red lock. He walked behind Percival and saw three more doors, two on his right and one directly in front of him. All of the doors had red locks on them. 

“I’m going to lock Tsavo and Enzi inside, seeing as they decided to come in after all” Newt said from the doorway. 

“Okay, sounds good!” Percival replied, his attention on the two male lions in the second room on the right. “This is Tsavo and Enzi, our two dads.” 

Credence watched as Percival started to talk to the cats. They responded by rubbing against the doorway, grumbling softly. Percival scratched one of them through the doorway. “Don’t try this at home kid. I’ve been working with these boys since the day they arrived.” 

“Percival, we need to walk yards and get them out” Newt smiled at the sight of Percival. 

The three men left the huts, and Percival locked the hallway door behind them. “Before we let cats out in the morning, we walk the yards and check the fence lines. It is mostly just to ensure that the fence is still intact and that nothing has gotten into the yards that can harm the cats” Newt explained. 

“I’m going to open the guillotines into Right Berm and Hut Tree,” Percival said. Newt nodded in agreement and continued talking to Credence. 

“We always have a two-person shift protocol when it comes to lions, tigers, and bears. We also make sure we are constantly communicating about when doors or guillotines are being opened. I’m going to have you go with Percival and walk Right Berm while I do Hut Tree. I’m going to unlock Sundeck.” 

Percival acknowledged Newt and once the gate to Sundeck was open, the three men headed onto the concrete area. “Right Berm Pen is the enclosure on the right, and it has a berm in it. Hut Tree Pen is the enclosure directly attached to the huts and it has more trees. Behind us are the breeder yards. We aren’t currently using them so we only check fences once a week or so.” 

Credence followed Percival through the guillotine into Right Berm. Every section of the fence they walked past, Percival pulled on the fence. “We pull on it to make sure it hasn’t come up from the ground or that they can break out of it. You also want to make sure you are looking at the top and bottom. Make sure there are no trees across the fence that they can climb and jump out with. You also need to be on the lookout for any weird looking fecals or vomit. I know it’s weird but if you find one, go ahead and take a picture of it and show it to Newt or myself.” 

“Got it.” 

After Newt left the sundeck, the gate was closed and locked. “We also have at least two people check each lock, just so we can really confirm that it is locked.” 

Percival double checked the lock and nodded to Newt “All set!” 

The three of them went back inside the building. All of the lions were up and pacing around their rooms. Newt spoke first “Let’s put cubs in Right Berm and adults in Hut Tree today”. 

“Works perfectly for me.” 

Credence watched the two men open guillotines and allow the adult lions, two males and two females, out onto the sundeck area and out onto exhibit. _I hope that I’ll be as good as them one day. _Percival and Newt shifted the cubs into Hut Tree efficiently.__

____

____

“Now that everyone is out, we close all of the inside guillotines between rooms until someone comes back down to clean. The yellow handles indicate between rooms while the blue is into a hallway. A red handle allows access outside. We’ll get you working on lion huts here in a little bit but right now we have to go let brown bears out,” Newt told Credence as Percival started to close the guillotines. 

After all the guillotines had been shut and the board updated, the three men got back into the Kubota and headed into the park. 

Percival started talking over the noise of the Kubota’s diesel engine “We are going to go in through the exit gate and head to our diet prep and storage area which is called QB. Before we put bears out in the morning, we spread out a bunch of food for them. It helps simulate their natural foraging behavior.” He glanced into the backseat at Credence and noticed the new intern was looking a little overwhelmed with all of the information he was passing on. 

They arrived at the diet prep area fairly quickly, there were no cars in the drive-thru to block their path. Credence followed Percival, learning the morning routine of QB. He watched as Percival checked the temperature of both the walk-in cooler and freezer, put two blue totes, two buckets full of produce, and several five-gallon buckets in the back of the Kubota. With the tailgate closed, they headed out to brown bear huts. 

They arrived at another building, this one towards the end of the drive-thru area. Newt parked and they all headed inside the building. 

“Good morning bears! It’s time to wake up!” Percival started, unlocking the inside door with ease. Credence followed him into a large hallway. He saw four bears, two on each side of the hallway. “These are our brown bears. Russell and Claire are on the right and they are Alaskan Coastal Bears. Mak and Oso are on the left and they are Grizzly Bears. We check and make sure they are locked inside before heading out to spread the food and do any other chores outside. Newt will stay here and attempt to med Claire and Oso while I show you the outside part of letting them outside in the morning.” 

Credence nodded and followed Percival. Before they got back in the Kubota, Percival grabbed a small device from the cabinet inside the building. “Hotwire tester, we check it every morning.” 

Percival started the Kubota, and Credence got in. They drove down to the tower just down the road from the building. “I need you to go up and open one of the gates, doesn’t matter which one.” 

Percival watched Credence climb the steps into the tower with ease, his long legs taking him to the top quickly. He watched from the road as the entrance gate swung open and waited for Credence to join him in the vehicle. They drove into the small loop and parked. 

“First thing we do is check the hotwire. It should be reading around 10000 volts, if not you need to call the person in the huts and let them know. We can’t have bears out if the hotwire isn’t on.” Credence watched as Percival tested the hotwire. It seemed easy enough. 

“Percy to Newt, hotwire is good” 

“Copy. K2 Clear” 

“Next up, we are going to spread this food, or what we tend to call AM enrichment. Each set of bears gets half a bucket. We just toss it all around between the ring and the island. The ring is the outside and the island is the inside enclosure. Bears will be alternated every day between the ring and the island.” 

“Newt to Percy” 

“Go ahead” 

“Are you ready for the girls?” 

“Yup! We are ready” 

“Copy, sending the girls out K2 Clear” 

“Russ! Claire! Come on girls, let’s go outside!” Percival started calling as soon as the door opened. “They need lots of encouragement to get up in the morning. I can’t say I blame them, they are pretty old for bears. Once they get over to the island, we will close off the tunnel.” 

The girls moved slow but after a couple of minutes, both of them were on the island side of the tunnel. Credence watched as Percival lowered each guillotine. 

“Percy to Newt” 

“Go ahead” 

“We are entering the ring” 

“Copy K2 Clear” 

Percival walked over to a gate on the outer section of the fencing. “Always radio that you are entering the ring. We need to move the hotwire that closes off the dead zone from the rest of the ring.” 

He showed Credence where to place the two strands of hot wire. They exited the ring and locked the gate. “Percy to Newt, you can let the boys out.” “Alright, boys are coming out K2 Clear” 

“After that, you can head back to pick up the person in huts. Make sure to close the drive-thru gate that you opened. If the person manning bear tower has checked in and is out here, you don’t have to worry about closing it.” 

“Sounds good thanks.” 

They drove back to the building and picked up Newt. Credence checked his watch and saw it was almost 7:30. He didn’t say anything to the two men in the front of the Kubota as they drove back to the office. _Today is going to be a long day. ___

**Author's Note:**

> Shout out to Nork for being like hey do the thing. Also, this is literally my job so that's cool. Hope y'all enjoy. Additional chapters will be posted sometime in the nebulous future  
> Terms:  
> Guillotine: small doorway that can be open from outside the room that allows animals to pass from area to area  
> Huts: buildings that carnivores are housed in over night.   
> K2 Clear: you are finished on the radio


End file.
